Title: Blutige Blume: Shadow Hunters

Author: Katt-chan

Rating: PG-13, may become R for violence later…

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Weiss Kreuz, kay? I DO own the rights to this assassin group though, but I wouldn't mind other people using them, even as villains! Just ask me first!

Note: The usage of the original characters in this fic by others is ABSOLUTLY PROHIBBITED except to those whom the characters are based off of (and you all know who you are. Most go to school with me!). If you wish to use these characters in any way, shape, or form you must first ask myself and the person they are based off of. Thank you.

Silver: Thank you for reviewing. ^_^ I'm sorry for the lack of a physical description for my girls, but I did that on purpose so that they'd remain a little mysterious… I promise I'll have full descriptions of them. ^.^ Two in this very chapter!

To Sovia, Sakki, and Smelly-Old Norwegian-Goat-Cheese: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing this you guys! I'm glad you think I made you in character. ^_^ I tried….

Aya frowned at the television screen, the reporter moving onto how nice the weather was in the area while the previous report was still ringing in his mind. So many strange assassinations lately… Of course, that was to be expected around the voting times like these. There was such close competition that many runners were killed every year… But this many…? Someone had found a talented group of killers. The only things they ever left to connect them were white flowers, usually roses or lilies, drenched in the blood of the main target.

Of course, it was none of his concern who was kill or not until it came time to hunt down another dark beast. It was obvious that Ken thought that they'd be after these mysterious killers soon, so he'd already bribed Omi in trying to find anything as to who it was. It was just so strange that all the manners of death with different… Of course, they were the same for each case, but the different methods… Poison, decapitation, stabbing, choking, and even unexplainable deaths…. Some men were found bleeding from their ears and eye socket, even mouths… It was just… Odd.

Turning his attention from the TV to the broom, Aya pushed all of the dead leaves and flower petals towards the trash can where Omi was scooping them up. Ken had already put up the 'closed' sing on the door, and Yohji was busy putting away the day's profits. Soon they'd be short one person and customers with school starting. Omi seemed to look forward to his last year of school, and Yohji was delighted with the prospect of being able to sleep in later. Ken didn't seem to mind still having to work, though… And neither did he. Aya-chan would be busy with school as well, catching up to everything she'd missed all those years she'd been hospitalized. She was working so hard…

"Ran!" Aya turned around and looked at his sister, standing in doorway that led to the living-part of the shop. She smiled brightly at him, but she was the only one who called him by his real name. "Ran, could you help me with my math when you're done? Onagai? (Please)"

Aya gave a slight smile to his sister. Even in front of the other guys, he still couldn't help but smile whenever he saw his little sister's face. "Alright Aya-chan. I'll be with you in a minute."

Omi smiled warmly at Aya, walked over, and took the broom right out of the red-head's hands. "Go on ahead, Aya-kun. The cleaning is almost done, so we can take care of it. You go help Miss Aya."

Aya nodded, turned and walked over to his sister. "Okay, so what do you need help with?"

"Sorry Aya-chan," came a female voice. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few minutes for your brother. I need to borrow him and the others." Everyone turned to see Manx walking through the door and into the shop, smiling and holding her black purse protectively.

"Manx!" Yohji greeted with his usual playboy-grin. "Long time no see, ne?"

"Business keeps me busy, Yohji, you know that," she replied coolly. "Wiess. Mission."

Aya nodded and turned towards his sister. "Wait in your room until I'm done, okay Aya-chan?"

Aya nodded, waved goodbye to Manx, and walked up the stairs back to her room. She knew very well what her brother and his friends did in the dark of the night. She knew what Manx meant when she came over and told them they had a mission. Though it made her shutter to know that she was living with a group of murderers, but she had come to at least one conclusion. Her brother, her dear sweet brother Ran, had never killed anyone. Aya-kun, the cold man that seemed to always be scowling was the killer. It was like her brother had split personalities, and she could never hate the one that hadn't been there when she'd gone to sleep for so long. After all, she was the reason for Aya-kun's existence…

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"Men of Weiss," the image of Persia started on the tape. "You know about the most recent murders of the politicians in this year's campaign. Many have been found dead, eliminating competition from many of the more competitive candidates. Our concern is not with the employers, for there are too many possibilities and too few ways to be sure it was them."

Ken frowned at the screen, biting his lower lip. So he had been right… This WAS their newest mission… And it would be a tough one as well… Omi found hardly anything at all of the case, and the various forms of the media had already covered all of it.

"The men you see here," the video continued as it showed pictures of the politicians and their vast array of bodyguards. "Are all dead because of this new assassin group. We have no information as to the number of members, their gender, appearance, origin, or background. The only clue that we have are the flowers that have been left at the crime scene."

"A type of message, eh?" Yohji asked, lighting his cigarette.

"Rather," Manx stated quietly, "Their mascot, and possibly a clue to the group's name."

"The flower left at each scene had no fingerprints, hairs, or other pieces that could help identify a culprit. All we know it that the flowers are white, and drenched in the blood of the target. Hunters of the Night, deny these dark beasts their tomorrows."

The screen went black, cutting off the image of Persia, and the lights were turned back on by the red head women. "So, you all in?"

All four boys quickly exchanged silent glances, questioning each other, and then confirming. They all nodded simultaneously, each with their gaze now mixed on Manx.

"So, do you have any other information?" asked Omi, hoping to make his job a little easier.

"You heard Persia…" Manx countered coolly. "All we have for information on and leads are the white flowers that are drenched in blood. Work off of that."

Omi groaned and slumped back into his seat. "Man… this sucks… How am I suppose to work off of such a hard case with little to no evidence?"

"You've done it before," Yohji pointed out, blowing out a stream of smoke. "What's the big deal?"

"With those cases we could at least get information out of the people who hired the attackers…" Omi sighed.

"That's right. But Kritiker doesn't want you going after the supposed employers. They just want the team dead." Manx pulled the tape from the VCR and placed it back into her large black purse. "Any questions before --"

"HELLO?!?! IS ANYONE HOME?!"

All the boys looked up towards the stairs, confusion in their eyes. Was that a girl's voice…? It certainly wasn't Aya-chan's…

"I'll go look…" Yohji volunteered, getting up from his spot on the couch and making his way up the stairs.

The sight that greeted him at the shop was a… unusual one, to say the least. Standing in the middle of the flower shop was a young woman, every inch as tall as he was, with dark brown wavy shoulder length hair, like his, streaked with gold. Her eyes were dark green, and she wore black knee-high boots, a tight black leather skirt, a red sleeveless, strapless shirt and a vast array of earrings, rings, and bracelets. She was pretty, but…rather odd and punk-ish looking.

"Hello?" she called again, aggravation in her voice. "Hello? Is anyone here or are all you workers dead?"

"Hello…" Yohji greeted, walking in. "Excuse me, but we're closed for the day. Sorry."

The girl glared at him, eyes narrowing dangerously. "The door was wide open and the sign quite clearly says 'Please Come In'. Or is today 'Opposite Day' and I was merely misinformed?"

Yohji looked at the door, which was indeed opened, and the sign was flipped to the wrong side. It must have flipped when Manx let herself in, and they forgot to close to the door. "Oh… well, that was a mistake. We closed half an hour, ago, Babe, so you'll have to come again tomorrow --"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

CRASH

Omi, Aya, and Ken looked at the stairs with even more confusion on their faces. They'd just been saying goodbye to Manx when a loud sound had come from up the stairs. Omi and Ken made a mad dash for the stairs, Aya following not far behind and grabbing his katana in case it was some kind of attack. However, when they reached the shop they saw an unusual looking girl leaning over Yohji, who was flat on his back, with her shoe on his throat. More specifically, the HEEL, the six-INCH heel was on his throat.

"Care to rephrase that?" she asked calmly, then looked up at the new comers. "Or perhaps one of YOU could help me…"

Ken was nearly rolling on the floor laughing, barely able to choke out the words. "Oh God Yohji, what did you do?! Hit on her?!"

The girl smiled quite sweetly. "Oh believe me Honey, if he had done THAT… Well… Let's just say this heel would be deeply lodged in a certain sensitive part of his anatomy…"

Omi half-winced, half smirked at the thought while Yohji emitted a somewhat-frightened yelp. "Ah… well, is there something I can do?"

"Get me some flowers, I'm running late," she answered simply, not removing her foot a nano-inch. "This guy said I'd have to wait until tomorrow, but I'm in a rush and I need flowers NOW. Your sign says you're open, and therefor I would like some service." She smirked down at Yohji, digging the heel in a bit. "And with a SMILE, Pretty-Boy."

Yohji smirked as best he could. "If this is what happens from just telling you a store is closed I shutter to think what happens when someone tells you that you can't have your way."

The girl smirked and removed her foot. "It's painful, to best summarize it." Quite happily, she turned towards Ken and Omi. "So, can I have some flowers?"

Ken smiled at the girl, not minding having to do one more order… After all, what was one order? "Sure, what can I get you?"

"Get ME an ice pack…" Yohji groaned, getting up and rubbing the back of his head. "My head hurts…"

"Your own damn fault," the girl snickered. "I need two dozen roses, half white, half red. And some black lilies. Four dozen."

Ken raised an eyebrow. "That many? For a party or something? Cause… That'll be expensive…"

The girl smiled and held up a pocketbook. "I just got a nice, fat bonus at my job, so I think I can hand it. And yea, it's for a type of party." Ken went back into the storeroom to take care of the girl's order, so she glanced over at Aya, who was putting the katana back in the umbrella container. "What's with the sword? Did you think I was a big, bag evil killer?"

Aya didn't give a reply, and instead headed up the stairs to help his little sister. He didn't spot the girl's knowing smirk.

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"Damn… what a hassle! And all for a bunch of flowers!" Ai sighed as she walked into the kitchen with the last bunch of flowers.

Ru looked up from where she was searching through the refrigerator, her neon-blue eyes curious. "What hassle?"

"Some damn pretty boy told be I couldn't buy any flowers cause they were closed! And the sign said 'open'!" Ai proclaimed indignantly.

Ru rolled her eyes and removed the chocolate milk carton and closed the door. "Well Airam, DEAR," she started, using her friend's full first name. "You wouldn't have that problem if you'd just let ME grow the flowers…"

"Arual, DARLING," Ai countered, using her friend's dreaded name as well. "People would expect the flowers to DIE before two months time had past. Your gift with flowers is a little TOO strong…"

Ru sighed as she poured four tall glasses of chocolate milk and threw the empty carton away in the recycling bin. "Okay, okay. Geez. Anyway, we have a new mission."

Ai stared at her friend, accepting the glass of milk and wishing she had some aspirin to cure her headache as well. "Another one? So soon?"

Ru nodded and she sipped her milk, wiping the brown mustache off her face once she was done. "Yea, but this one doesn't need to be done so quickly. It's not a politician."

"Hurray!" said Nilly, smiling as she walked into the kitchen. "No more stupid body guards to take out! Who is it this time?"

Ru shrugged. "Eh, just some assassin group. From that big industry, Estete`. Remember them?"

All the girls nodded while their faces all pulled into looks of disgust. That huge organization was a pain in the neck to avoid, and even though the founders were dead there were still 'training schools' out there for more little minions. The place practically brainwashed people into their mindless, soul-sucking slaves who did whatever they ordered without hesitation. That organization was deadly, and hardly anyone ever left alive if they opposed them.

"So, just one of their sub-groups, then?" Nilly asked, downing all of her chocolate milk in one gulp.

"Yea…" Ru looked around. "Hey… Where's Tek?"

Ai shrugged. "Don't ask me. Wasn't she here when I left? Or did that little silver-haired brat sneak off again?"

"Who's a silver-haired brat?" an indignant voice asked. "I just went to make some tea and draw a bath! And I'm NOT a brat!"

"You ARE a brat," Ai said playfully, though there WAS certain truth to it… Tek was, after all, the newest member and still the most rebellious. The girl hated taking orders, especially Ai's… "So, Ru, the target?"

"Oh, right!" Ru set her milk glass down and run out of the room, calling over her shoulder. "Be right back!"

Tek looked at the retreating form of her friend, then turned back to Ai and Nilly, eyebrow raised. "Targets? Already? I'm STILL cleaning the blood of that politician out of my uniform! Can't we deny this one?"

"Deny a mission?" Ai asked, raising her own eyebrow at the silver-haired girl. "That's as good as the guy hiring other assassins for two missions. If we deny and know that these people are going to be killed then he'll send em after us too."

Tek shrugged. "We've turned em down before."

"That was because we'd done jobs for those people before and they trusted us, Dearie," Nilly put it, rolling her eyes.

"Besides, not only will this be easy, but VERY high paying!"

All girls turned to Ru, who was walking back in, smiling and holding a large envelope. Ru was pale, almost dead pale since she almost never went outside, with bright neon blue eyes that most couldn't take their eyes off. The girls were used to them though, living with two girls with unusually colored eyes. Ru kept her long hair pulled back behind her head, letting it flow down, straight to her hips. The true color was jet black, but she had permanently died the back to look at though there were flames going up her hair. The flames were white at the bottom and got brighter and brighter until they were neon blue, like her eyes, around her shoulder blades. Also, around her forehead was a braid, part blue, part black, and part white. She wore black jeans and a loose black T-shirt with a purple Celtic rune in it, black slippers donning her fear.

"This is one of the top sub-groups that crappy psycho-place had, a group that managed to escape without a scratch from that huge explosion at the temple-pad." Ru explained all this very quickly as she unsealed the envelope and took out several sheets of paper. "These are the targets."

All the girls crowded around the counter as she laid them out. There were four single shots and one group shot of four males…

"…ROW!!!" Tek exclaimed, grinning like a cheshire cat. "Shit, do we have to kill them?! These two are damn sexy!"

Nilly laughed. "That one is WAY too young!"

"Who cares?! He's still cute!"

Ai laughed. "Yea, but look at that one. Judging by that expression I'd say there's a ten foot steel two by four lodged up his ass…"

"And what's with THAT one?" Nilly asked, pointed to the last single picture.

Ru shrugged, admiring the other picture Tek had been referring to. Damn, this one WAS sexy… "That place took in the weirdest and made em weirder. But I have background info in case you're interested."

Nilly sighed, setting down the group picture. "Man, the only time we see reasonably good looking guys and we have to kill them! Life's not fair…"

"What's the name of the group?" Ai asked, looking at Ru questioningly.

"Schwartz."

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Bradley Crawford pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, keeping one hand firmly on the steering wheel of the car. It was late, 1:34 AM to be precise, which he always was, and they'd just finished with a good, clean assassination job. It was amazing how easy it was to get a job as either an assassin or a bodyguard around the voting times… Except now they weren't working for that idiot Takatori…

He was driving, being the leader, watching the road and every once in a while glancing at his teammates. It was silent in the car, since Schuldich wasn't the one in the driver's seat. Whenever the German was at the wheel he was always talking or blaring loud music from his country, the singer's voices even more nasal then his own. Schuldich was in the passenger seat, arms crossed behind his head while his legs were resting on the dashboard. In the back Nagi looked just about ready to fall asleep, eyelids drooped, and Farfarello was idly playing with a small penknife on his finger.

Brad glared ahead of him… Something was making him feel uneasy about being out, and it wasn't the blood that they were all covered in…

~ What's wrong Bradley? ~ asked a bored sounding German voice in his head.

Brad sighed and kept his eyes on the road. He'd long given up on telling Schuldich to stay out of his head… After all, if there was one thing he's learned about all mind readers was that they never listened. Unless you blocked them out with mental shields, but although he could withstand most mind-attacks, Schuldich had found a way into the silent solstice of his mind.

~ Something doesn't seem… right… I just have this feeling… ~

~ Have a vision, oh Oracle? ~

~ No… Just a feeling… ~

They continued in silence for the rest of the drive, hardly anyone moving, no one saying anything. It was like they were all life-less, animated bodies that functioned but did not think. But they were thinking… Oh, were they thinking… Brad continued to ponder and worry silently, trying to shake the feeling off, but with little success. Schuldich was thinking, in another way. He was concentrating on putting up his mental shield, rebuilding and construction the mental mass that kept the waves of voices out of his mind…. It was the dam that kept the ocean from sweeping away the village. Farfarello's mind was on the victim of their recent job… His screams… His pain…God had cried when his child was killing of so painfully… Nagi's thoughts were a misty haze of painful memories that were being recalled and planning an excuse for going to school out of uniform tomorrow, since the blood wouldn't wash out overnight.

When they returned to their apartment they all started to go their separate ways, Farfarello to his room, Schuldich to the living room, Brad to the kitchen, and Nagi to the office. Brad looked around the kitchen, trying to pic up something that was amiss… Something was out of place, or just all together wrong… But what…

"Oi, Crawford!" Schuldich called from the living room.

"What is it?" Damn that German… couldn't he look into his mind and tell he was busy…

"Did you buy flowers?"

Brad stopped and stared at the kitchen table. At that precise moment Schuldich had mentioned it he too had noticed a large vase of red roses sitting innocently on their kitchen table. There were apparently ones in the living room too… Nagi wandered into the kitchen, Farfarello not far behind, both looking confused.

"Did you, Crawford?" Nagi asked quietly. "They're vases of them all over the house…"

/ Schuldich took a flower out the vase, bringing his fingers under the head and lifting. But the top slid off the stem easily, and a moment later… CRASH! FIRE! BURNING FLESH! CHAIN REACTION! DEATH! BOMBS! /

Crawford's eyes widened as his vision ended. "SCHULDICH!" he yelled, running towards the living room with the younger members following close behind. "DON'T TOUCH THE FLOWERS!"

Brad bust through the door just as Schuldich was about to reach out for one of the perfect red blooms. He looked at the American leader, confused. "Why?"

/ WINDOWS SHATTERING! GLASS BREAKING! MORE FLOWERS! FIRE! /

Brad shook his head and started heading in the direction of the back door, which was closer than the front. "Run! Get out of the apartment!"

The other three members wasted no time in following the orders, all of them making a mad rush to the door. As they did so they each heard the sound of the windows breaking, something that looked like rose-tops being thrown through. Explosions were heard where the fell, fire following close behind them like the plants were grenades that had gone off.

Outside four girls giggled as the explosions sounded, fire spewing from the windows and doors. Everything inside was burning.

"Those bombs are brilliant!"

"But did they do the job?"

"Should we check?"

"Don't worry…" the last one smirked. "No one could have survived that. Let's go collect our money."

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"Manx!" Yohji's eyebrows went up as he, Aya, Ken, and Omi walked into the living room, having just been getting ready to open up the store. "What are you doing here?"

"I hope it's just for another visit…" Ken moaned.

"If it's about the mission, I haven't even gotten started on it!" Omi protested, hoping they wouldn't have duel missions.

Manx looked seriously at them all. "It's another mission, but it concerns the same group that your working on. This will be a required mission that all of you MUST take part in."

All the boys waited for Manx to go on further, curious as to what could be so serious.

"These assassins have targeted an assassin group that Este' wishes to keep alive, the members only barely escaping a trap set up at their residence…" Manx walked over to the door that led to the office and opened it. "Men of Weiss, your mission is to protect these men."

And into the room stepped Schwartz.